Computer communications carried over computer networks may be recorded. Typically, a computer is used to collect and record the communications. The collection of computer communications is done in three main ways. “Promiscuous mode tapping” collects all packets on the network and then the recording computer filters these to determine which to keep. In a “conference bridge approach,” the recording computer becomes a participant in the call and receives packets from the other participants and/or from a conference bridge. Lastly, a party (e.g. computer) in the communication may forward packets or derivatives of packets that form the communication session to the recording computer.
The recording computer typically taps the network or receives the communication to be recorded over an industry standard Network Interface Card (NIC) which supports a protocol stack. This would typically include the TCP/IP stack.
However, the recording application can be very demanding of the performance capabilities of the recording computer. For example, when recording communications using promiscuous mode tapping on some of the most advanced networks, the recording computer may receive data at a rate of 10 gigabits per second. That may translate to as many as 1.25 gigabytes per second that need to be processed, filtered, and ultimately recorded by the recording computer. This amount of processing may overload some recording computers, thereby resulting in the loss of some of the communications that should have been recorded. Accordingly, to prevent data loss and allow the use of less expensive computers as recording computers, there is a need in the art for more efficient recording systems.